Album reviews: Pinback and Gov't Mule

By Jon Dawson

Published: Thursday, October 25, 2012 at 09:53 AM.

Many lazy writers to this day tag Gov’t Mule as a “southern rock” band, which coming from their quills is probably a backhanded compliment. Gov’t Mule’s membership may emanate from the south, but their music is no more southern than their power-trio predecessors Cream or Mountain. Anyone yearning for the days when a bunch of guys with faces for radio let their talent do the talking should buy “The Georgia Bootleg Box” immediately.

Jon Dawson’s album reviews appear every Thursday in The Free Press. Contact Jon at 252-559-1092 or jon.dawson@kinston.com. Purchase Jon’s book ‘Making Gravy in Public’ at jondawson.com.

Rob Crow and Armistead Smith form the core of Pinback, a band that has quietly released some of the most consistent pop music of the last decade. Their latest album “Information Retrieved” is their first since 2007’s much lauded “Autumn of the Seraphs.”

Much of “Information Retrieved” falls somewhere between the emotional ambiguous melodies of the Beta Band and sparse musicality of early 1990's Cure. Crow and Smith are wise enough to never be caught singing to their belt buckles, but they’ll never be accused of trying to out-party Buckcherry either. The area between woe and jubilation — cautious positivity — is the Pinback sweet spot.

Longtime fans of Pinback will immediately be drawn to the familiar landscapes of “Glide” and “Sherman” — both tracks easily classifiable as Pinback 101. On “Drawstring” and “Denslow, You Idiot!”, the distortion-free guitar geometry of “Murmur”-era R.E.M. is in full effect. These songs are almost dance-able, at least in a dimly-lit coffee shop kind of way.

The somewhat restrained pulse of the songs on “Information Retrieved” do create a consistent mood, but at times it seems these songs are begging from someone to crank up an amp and sling a little tinnitus around. The uncluttered arrangement of “His Phase” is a welcome respite from the run-of-the-mill 28-guitar tracks on most modern rock songs, but just a pinch of testosterone in the right places may have shifted the song into a higher gear.

Pinback’s strength lies in their consistency, which is at odds with what the music industry has turned into. These guys may never make a giant splash, but rather a well-defined ripple. Lady Gaga can have the pork chop corsets; Pinback are doing just fine with their cache of incredibly decent tunes.

Classic album: The Georgia Bootleg Box

Artist: Gov’t Mule

Label: Evil Teen

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Gov’t Mule started as a side project for Allman Brothers Warren Haynes and Allen Woody. Along with drummer Matt Abts, the Mule reinvented the idea of the rock power trio and went on to become a force in their own right. In 2000, Woody was found dead in a New York hotel room.

Gov’t Mule carried on but their fans have been begging Haynes to release archived live shows featuring Woody. While every Mule show of the last few years is available for purchase, official live recordings featuring Woody were limited to only three. With the release of the six-disc “Georgia Bootleg Box” those rabid fans yearning for a shot of Woody have been granted their wish in spades.

Recorded at three separate Georgia venues in 1996 between April 11 and April 13, “The Georgia Bootleg Box” is a living testament to one of the greatest power trios of all time. Having made their bones as a live act at every dive between San Francisco and New York, the performances contained on these six discs are the auditory equivalent of a victory lap.

Anyone foolish enough to think Gov’t Mule was a vanity project used to kill time between Allman Brothers projects was met with an onslaught of blues/jazz power that made most metal bands sound like Liberace.

Anyone who knows anything about Warren Haynes knows the man is all about guest appearances, and while these performances are graced by some of the best (Derek Trucks, Tinsley Ellis), the members of Gov’t Mule are the stars here. On “The Birth of the Mule,” Abts allows the epic jamming to teeter between the precision of King Crimson and exploratory nature of John Coltrane’s best work. The Mule even wrote a song called “Trane” that appears — okay, detonates — on this box set.

It’s bittersweet listening to the interplay of Warren Haynes and Allen Woody on “Temporary Saint” and “Thelonious Beck.” Woody played the bass as if it were a lead instrument, and matched with the world renowned guitar abilities of Haynes, power and virtuosity of the “Live at Leeds” variety was pumped out every night as if it were a routine occurrence. If all of that weren’t enough, Haynes powerful blues-wail conjures the ghosts of everyone from Willie Johnston to Howlin’ Wolf.

Many lazy writers to this day tag Gov’t Mule as a “southern rock” band, which coming from their quills is probably a backhanded compliment. Gov’t Mule’s membership may emanate from the south, but their music is no more southern than their power-trio predecessors Cream or Mountain. Anyone yearning for the days when a bunch of guys with faces for radio let their talent do the talking should buy “The Georgia Bootleg Box” immediately.

Jon Dawson’s album reviews appear every Thursday in The Free Press. Contact Jon at 252-559-1092 or jon.dawson@kinston.com. Purchase Jon’s book ‘Making Gravy in Public’ at jondawson.com.